The Need for Risk-Based Vulnerability Management to Combat Threats

Cyber attacks are increasing as the number of vulnerabilities found in software has increased by over 50% in the last 5 years.  This is a result of unpatched and poorly configured systems as 75% of organizations believe they are vulnerable to a cyberattack due to unpatched software.  

Keeping up with the constant influx of new threats can be a daunting task, compounded by the ever-evolving security landscape that adds to the workload of security teams.

As vulnerabilities continue to rise and security evolves, it is becoming increasingly apparent that conventional vulnerability management programs are inadequate for managing the expanding attack surface.

As a result, many security teams are scrambling to adopt modern vulnerability management programs that are capable of identifying and thwarting contemporary vulnerability-based threats.

These risk-based vulnerability management platforms are far better equipped to help organizations prioritize imminent threats for mitigation and ensure complete security – but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Before we dive into that, let’s first take a look at traditional vulnerability management programs, modern risk-based alternatives, and the core differences between each.

Traditional Vulnerability Management

Vulnerability management is a structured and recurring process that involves the discovery and resolution of vulnerabilities. This process includes several stages, such as scanning, detection, assessment, and remediation.

Once vulnerabilities are identified, security teams proceed with remediation promptly. However, traditional vulnerability management relies heavily on CVSS scores, which are not always reliable and can result in security teams incorrectly prioritizing their efforts, wasting time on low-risk vulnerabilities.

The major issue with this conventional approach to vulnerability management is the lack of comprehensive insights into the potential risks posed by each vulnerability. Such practices fail to provide adequate threat context, resulting in the inability to accurately identify the most significant risks faced by an organization.

This leads to manual triaging of all vulnerabilities and a lack of quantifiable data on their potential business impact.

Critically, when security teams are not provided with enough context, they are likely to remediate vulnerabilities randomly, which can lead to dangerous, high-risk vulnerabilities.

Risk-Based Vulnerability Management

In comparison to traditional and outdated approaches to vulnerability management, a risk-based strategy enables organizations to assess the level of risk posed by vulnerabilities.

This approach allows teams to prioritize vulnerabilities based on their assessed risk levels and remediate those with higher risks, minimizing potential attacks in a way that is hassle-free, continuous, and automated.

Over 90% of successful cyberattacks involve exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities and in result the demand for automated patch management solutions is increasing as organization seeking a smarter and more efficient vulnerability remediation strategy than those employed in the past.

Outscan NX: Modern Vulnerability Management for an Evolving Threat Landscape

In the face of today’s threats, it is crucial to have actionable insights based on risk that can drive security remediation efforts forward. By continuously assessing your entire attack surface, Outscan NX tools can pinpoint the most pressing threats, saving your security team valuable time and resources.

The Outscan NX are a comprehensive suite of internal and external network scanning and cloud security tools customized to suit the unique needs of your organization. The innvoative vulnerabilty management solution:

• Has a feature scanning-less scanning to diagnose network and cloud security issues. This takes a blueprint of your last scan, and it continuously checks it against new findings. This means that even if you haven't run a scan for a few days, you will get alerted anyway.   
• Utilizes risk scoring, enabling faster and more targeted remediation efforts.
• Risk-based insights and specialized security tools to bolster your business's security measures and fortify yourself against potential threats.

By enhancing your vulnerability risk management process,you will be able to proactively address potential issues before they escalate. This approach enables your organization to stay one step ahead of potential risks and maintain a proactive stance in managing vulnerabilities and cloud security.

Through the incorporation of automated threat intelligence risk monitoring, you will be able to identify significant risks before they become exploitable. This will minimize your exposure time and make informed smarter, better-informed decisions based on up-to-the-moment, reliable intelligence.

Eliminate cyber risk, harness real-time, actionable insights and receive automated, round-the-clock risk-based vulnerability management today with Outscan NX.

Speak to the Outscan NX experts to find out how you can upgrade your vulnerability management today.

Sponsored and written by Outpost24.